- hard time running Blood Magic maps (but possible)
- one of the most mana-hungry build outthere
- IIQ is possible but not easy to get (I had 140% cull on my old char though)
- Lightning Thorns provides a real Challange
- risk of thinking the game is too easy :D

Frequently Asked Questions
Please make sure to look here before asking questions that I have answered noumerous times before. If there is something not discussed here feel free to ask.

Spoiler

Q: Is my gear good enough and can you suggest stats I can improve?
A: Thats what the "Gearing" section is made for. I have posted a gear example with all the necessary stats. If you dont know if your wand is good enough check if it has the all the affixes/suffixes that my wand has. Some stats like "Added xxxx Damage xx-xx" or "increased item quality" obviously are not or only partially important.

Q: Why are we using "added lightning damage" instead of "faster casting"?
A: Its there cause we want to shock targets, but we cant shock high health monsters, thats why I consider it as a "quality of life" gem that has the least importance in our "links" list. Faster casting adds about the same "dps number" as "added lighting" and barely affects the "ramp-up-time" of incinerate beyond 30% castspeed (wich we get from tree).

Q: Why are we using "added chaos" over "added lightning". Lightning shocks and provides higher damage?
A: Against "normal" monsters it sure does, but its not able to shock targets with higher life pools. Added Chaos does not only provide a more flat DPS increase it also bypasses the very common elemental resists and energy shield. This proves also to be useful against curse immune enemys against wich we cant make use of our "elemental weakness" curse. Overall "added chaos" adds much higher consistancy by not beeing dependant on RNG.

Q: Is Cloak of Defiance better than a rare 6L?
A: Cloak of Defiance is better in case of beeing a 6L. Its saves us three passive points that we can invest in "%Life" nodes that make up for the missing "+Life".

Q: Why are we not taking any fire/elemental damage nodes?
A: We utilize "added chaos" and "added lighting" in our incinerate links. Theses add about the same or higher numbers to each individual hit. Fire is only a portion of this damage and thats why fire damage nodes have such a small benefit.

Q: Can I use x-aura instead of "Haste"?
A: Yes sure. Sometimes its useful to go for "Purity of Elements" to max out your resists or "Grace" if you lack Armor. Just make sure its somewhat useful

Videos (Pre-SotV-Era on my Scion Character)

Note. These Videos are in Standard League and recorded post-RIP beofre 1.1.0 was deployed
As soon as my new character gets to endgame in the new leagues I will provide 75+ map footage.

My tooltip dps on my old character was 2500 with Incinerate (with not(!) fully leveled GMP and "Added" gems). What looks small on paper is actually crazy.

Incinerate Dps is 2500 + 3 x 2500 = 10000 for every stage of the spell
This x5 if you shotgun a single target with Greater Multiple Projectiles = 50000
This on a Triple Shocked Target x 1.9 (90% more damage) = 95000 Dps

This is actually a quite common scenario, because we utilize Lighning Warp to always position us in "Shotgun Range" to maximize our kill speed.

[READ FIRST!!!] Rules of Thump:
Here are some handy Tips and Tricks to greatly improve your leveling experience with this build.

1) Check the Gearing Section to have a good understanding wich stats are the most improtant for each piece of gear you want to pick up.

2) Dont be afraid of trading. This is a key part of Path of Exile. Use http://poe.xyz.is/ to search for Gear and Weapons everytime you feel the need.

3) Resistances: Always make sure you have em between 60-75% while leveling. There is as cap at 75% you dont need more than that. If you have trouble reaching this you can always to these things:

- Chance Orb every "Two Stone Ring" you come across. These are always a good way to come across some good stat rings with resistances. If they are bad for you, maybe you still can sell em for Chaos or two. If you have three diffrent Two Stone Rings you can vendor-recipe them to get a "all resistance" ring wich also can be good.
- You can oftenly pick up "Goldrim" as a Unique Helmet Item for cheap. Even on the new league I got myself one for 1Chaos. It holds up to 40% All Resistances.
- "Purity of Elements" is a early obtained Aura that helps greatly
- Atziri's Mirror is not quite a good Shield but also provides some good Res-to-all. Its pretty cheap in most leagues too

4) While Leveling always pick up the %Health Nodes as a high priority. PoE is a game more about survival than about dealing the most damage.

Bandit Rewards:

Spoiler

Normal: Oak
Cruel: Alira
Merciless: Kill all!

20p:
You decided to pick the Witch. Not only is she kinda cute but has some of the most amazing oneliners for completing quests. For normal difficulty you want to pick up Firestorm as our main skill. Its almost independant of links to clear fast. Its somewhat annoying to use but does a good job. The Witch has quite an explosive start for leveling that allows you to progress fast through the first chapters of the game. You want to pick up searing bond to help you clear packs and high health minions fast.

40p:
Its now time to pick up Mana Geysir for massive mana regen. Also Ballistic Mastery prepares for the transition to use Incinerate as our Main Damage skill. This and "Charisma" allows us also to start running with Arctic Armor. Just make sure that the "mana consumption while running" never exceeds your mana regen in general. Check that by pressing "C" for "character sheet" and look under "Defense". The use of Auras should possible by now (wich is Clarity and Discipline). Be careful leveling up Arctic Armor, make sure it always is as high as bearable. If its not working just leave it off for now.

64p (yeah 64, its a key point in this build):
Now its gets Exciting. Its time to transition to Incinerate. We pick up "Eldrish Battery" and "Shaper" to give us more mana and regen. Also make sure to pick up even more mana regen on Rings/Neck to aid your massive consumption. Get a 4L chest and use "Incinerate + Lesser Multiple Projectiles + Life Leech + Added Lightning". Also make sure you have "Clarity Aura" running at all times. If you have problems you can still stay with Firestorm/Searing Bond.

80p:
We also picked up "Iron Reflexes" Before. Also we want to pick up "Reflexes" to aid our transition to "Mind over Matter". This is somehwat tricky because our Mana Consuption is on the point of getting unbearable. You can if you have problems, pick up some of the "small mana regeneration nodes" we came across before. This is a good time to actively look for cheap "5L Armor" deals. If youre a savy person like me you should be able to pick one up for 4-8 chaos. With this you can add "Mana Leech" to the links and get a huge chunk of you mana problems out of the way. Also make sure to replace "Added lightning Damage" with "Added Chaos Damage" to get higher DPS values. On top we pick up some cast-speed to boost our damage.

108 Points = Level 90:
Now we make our way to the endgame Build. Pick up "Steady Hands" first. "Added Lightning Damage" is something reserved for a 6L Armor along with the "Static Blows" nodes. If you have dont one, you better invest in "Elemental Adaptation" as a priority. The "Body and Soul Wheel" also greatly rounds out the build.

This is highly dangerous for us. Reason is the cast rate of incinerate. Its not countered by Arctic Armour much and triple shockstacks you very fast and you die miliseconds after. What we want to have is always enough Hitpoints to counter shockstacking versus regular Archmages (the monster type that casts LT). But there is the Promenade Boss with LT. You can kill it very carefully when LT is down. But as a rule of thump, just avoid it.

2.) Corrupting Blood:

Every Nemesis players knows this one. Its the Reason why you should always have a Panic Flask (Hybird Flask) with "Remove Bleeding" on good hotkey (mines on spacebar). Incinerate Stacks this to 20 very quick. So always look out for this.

Concepts and Gearing:

Spoiler

Defense Concept:

ONLY 208% Life???!!! No STUN IUMMUNITY???!!! U NOOB?!!!

NO! The EB-MoM Concept makes this possible. We spend a point in "Steady Hands". This makes up just enough for the lack of Stun Immunity, I did extensive testing.

Check the Gear below for all other Gems:
(This is my gear from my former character)

BONUS BUILD: EB-MoM-Spectral_Crit_Dagger

Spoiler

Note: This build isnt Beginner friendly for the most part.

I will not support this build here directly. Its treated like an "alpha-build" and still has a likelyness to change alot. Im playing this at the moment and what I can say is, that it is absolutely mindblowingly amazing :D

I fused the extreme damage potential of elemental-crit-dagger builds with our good old EB-MoM concept. A friend of mine also plays this build and has already killed Athziri with GREAT EASE. However Its quite a bit more expensive and requires some really complicated gear-searching. It still remains in the mid-range in terms of gear price.

Features:

- Very high damage 100k++
- High mobility
- High survivabilty (same concept as the main-build)
- Near limitless potential because of beeing a "Weapon-Build"

1. How looks your gems if you have 5 link?
2. witch aura you use?
3. What give you heart of oak that is so good?
4. Shaper and reflexes are very important in this build bacuse it hink to chosse more life ( i will be hardcore player) ?
5. How looks leveling in this build? what you propose?:)

Very nice. This is the direction that I was looking to go when the patch releases, so I figured I'd come here to look over some old guides to get ideas...and there's already someone working on a new guide.

As far as I remember, added lightning doesn't work well with incinerate because incinerate doesn't do large enough numbers / crits. How are you going to shock stuff?

Thats what I thaught first. But it actually works just fine. I can shock stack maps-rares most of the time. Even Blue Rock Golems/Giant Skeletons get shocked. Not Bosses though. But you shoot at normal minions most of the time.

You wont get long duration but you dont need this due to the frequent hits of Incinerate.